Medicine Hat Media

Alberta Arts Days Fundraiser at Historic Clay District

From 11:00am – 3:00pm on Saturday, September 18, the Historic Clay District is holding a fundraiser while making the museum, Squared Gallery and Shaw Centre open to the public at no charge. All proceeds from this event will go directly to Friends of Medalta Society. Food and refreshments will also be available.

For Alberta Arts Days 2010, some of Medicine Hat’s potters have come together to create bowls and figurines which visitors will be able to glaze before being fired in a raku kiln. Raku is a historical pottery technique that originated in Japan. The pots are heated up to 1,000 degrees celsius relatively quickly (45 minutes). Once the pots reach this temperature they are taken from the kiln and plunged into combustible material such as sawdust. This produces smoke that reacts with the glaze to create truly unique surfaces that highlight the mysterious marks of the fire.

The costs of this event have been generously covered by Cancarb Ltd. and Crescent Heights Safeway. Historic Clay District Marketing & Fundraising Coordinator is pleased with the community support. “Events like this really showcase the support we have in the community. Whether it is Medicine Hat’s potters coming together to volunteer their time to create pots or organizations like Cancarb and Safeway who are happy to help us with our fundraisers, we have a strong network of people dedicated to seeing the Historic Clay District come to life.”

Alberta Arts Days also marks the final weekend of ceramic artist Jim Etzkorn’s exhibition in Medalta’s Squared Gallery. The show is a culmination of Etzkorn’s one year residency at Medalta’s Shaw Centre, where he focused on the salt and soda firing processes. Free half-day pottery classes will be taught by one of Medalta’s new resident artists to people who have pre-registered.

Everyone is welcome to participate in the Historic Clay District’s festivities.

The Historic Clay District is one of eight tourism attractors in the Canadian Badlands, featured in AMA’s “Alberta 100 Journeys” and is Western Canada’s largest National Historic Site. The museum – in the Medalta Potteries National Historic Site – provides visitors a unique opportunity to visit a restored 1912 pottery factory, which once produced three-quarters of all stoneware in Canada. It is operated under the stewardship of the Friends of Medalta Society.

For more information, interviews or visuals, contact:
Quentin Randall
403.529.1070
www.medalta.org

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